The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1887-11-12


by wear and tear ~ f. full weight.
The edge Of the English bank count
er Is provided with lip to prevent the
coin from rolling over and to aid the
teller in scooping up the money. The
teller usually counts with the first two
fingers Of both hands, simultaneously;
sometimes he uses six fingers and n
/ tcllor has been known 10 count 40
sOyercigns I'm one minute working
against time. An expert teller will
count one hundred pounds value Of
silver in seven minutes. When 1t Is
remembered that the coins are always
mixed and consist Of sixpences, shill-
/ ings, florins, half crowns and crowns
/ with never n decimal convenience
among them, this will reasonably be
| considered as remarkable feat.
There is no selection Of coins possible
| in such count Were that observed
! the count would take fully thirty
minutes The four fingers Of the teller
seize all the coins as they come, and ii
their action Is bewilderingly quick
what must be that Of the eye and brain
which can so promptly assess and add
up those disjointed values so as to keep
pace with the mechanical action Of the
hands? And all the time an outlook
is kept for base coin, Of which such an
expert will sometimes throw out fully
half dozen in counting hundred
pounds.
The annual loss from wear and tear
of gold coin in England by reason Of
the absence of small notes in almost
Incredible. In Scotland the issue Of
fl notes displaces gold to great ox-
,ent, and it is almost rs rare there as
here. The Scotch teller eXcels in
counting paper money In handling
gold and silver he is altogether behind
the age keeping those metals before
him in little old-maidish piles, which
would make London teller shrek
with dcrison. But in lingering bum
die of notes he is king of men. Plac-
ing the packets upright against his
left palm. and scizng the top corner
between the finger and thumb Of his
right hand. he will turn over tho notes
so quickly that IN ordinary observer
will be as entirely deceived as by tho
threc-card trick. and will probably
count only sixteen or seventeen to the
tcller's twenty. Then. to check his
count. he will either alternate his
hands, on placing the notes horizon
tally on his counter hc will count them
toward himself with the samo paralyz-
ing spcod.
The Scotch counter Is twice rs wide
as the London one; it Is clcv atod in
the center and is minus the rim which
facilities the English tcllcr's dcXtcrity
with the coin. Tho Scotch teller in
Edinburgh is rallied in. His domain j.
little island by itself, he is fat and
comfortable and old, he takes no sort
OF responsibility except rs to the
weather, he carries no balances in his
head, and will not look at a check un-
I'll the ledger clerk, far of in the
corner, has countcrsigncd it., When
you cross the broard. stately plaza OF
the inner hall and finally accost him
in due form he will hardly let you away
| he is SO impressed with you and has
| so many things TO say. or rather so
many polite inquiries TO make. The
correct concusian ut which To arrive
when your knowledge is complete is
that there iS as great disparity be-
tween the principles Of Enelish aud
Scottish banking as there is between
the mechanical methods in which they
carry on their business.
The American teller i sclf-con-
taincd. gcntlcmanly an very much to
the point. but he handles his notes rs
haberdashcr handles q ribbon, con-
vcying the impression that he is test
ing c! illustrating the value of the ma
,erial of which they are made rs he doles
Shom out. llo looks, too. rs if he were
afraid OF giving You too much, an un-
desirable impression.
One great advantage which the
English teller possesses over both the
Am erican and the Scotch teller lies
in the fact that he issues clean notes
only. The Bank Of England has the
exclusive privileges of note issue in
London and within n radius Of sixty
miles, a right conferred for certain
valuable consideration granted to the
Government in years gone by. All
the notes received by the London tel
lcr are sent into the Bank of England
and they are not rcissucd. The aver
age life Of E5 bank note is two or
three weeks, that of El00 bank note
three davs-that is the interval be-
tween its issue and return to the bank
and finally death. "Tho Bank" be
IT noted. always refers in London to
one institution. 'Ihc Bank of In
gland" The advantage in issuing
clean notes is this They are all num-
bercd conSccutivcly. therefore all that
the teller has to do in recording the
numbers is 10 enter the first and tn
last-thuS, 81. $50 To SI57i 1868
fl0, would represent fl50 in ten
pound notes The smaller numbers
represent the date, June Is. 1887.
The London teller has the trouble OF
entering the numbers Of his notes
which Mother ;he Scotch nor Ameri-
can banks have. but il he gives away
too much either oy wrong count or
through mistake in the deuomina-
tons ne can usually locate mis- error
at the close Of the day and generally
recover tho money